CYCLING

Daily Diary: Ambrose talks Turkey - Stage 5

By Aaron S Lee

Team Novo Nordisk neo-pro Scott Ambrose cruises to finish in preparations for delivering team GC Javier Mejías to stage 6 result.

PAMUKKALE, Turkey—The pristine white cliffs in Pamukkale served as a beautiful backdrop for the stage 5 finish at the 51st Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey on Thursday.
Reigning two-time German national champion André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) avoided a shutout and won his historic 10th stage in Turkey before abandoning the race to turn his attention toward the Giro d’Italia.

Greipel’s departure moved Australian Adam Hansen into the Lotto leadership role.
After a blistering pace over the first 20 minutes of racing, three riders broke free and established an early breakaway, including Hansen’s teammate Thomas De Gendt, Alessandro Bazzana (UnitedHealthcare) and Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty-Groupe Goubert).

In the end, it was Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) coming out on top with a difficult uphill sprint victory over Carlos Barbero (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) was second, and Australian Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo), who sits fourth overall 1 minute 20 seconds back on race leader Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polkowice). McCarthy’s teammate Michael Kolar was fourth on the stage.

NZ Bike caught up with Team Novo Nordisk neo-pro Scott Ambrose (NZL) for his inside take on the day and his team’s chances to crack the top 10 for the race with the Cat 2 finish in Selçuk looming on Saturday’s stage 6.

Scott’s diary entry: Stage 5 – Muğla – Pamukkale, 160km
We started the day quite high elevation (600m) so the weather was mild in the beginning. However, after the first couple of climbs the heat started to kick in and we were dripping with sweat.

I was a bit battered and bruised from the crash I had the day before, but I was still feeling strong and carried on for another day of work.

The race started off super fast with the average speed hitting 60-plus km/h with a straight tailwind, but our luck ran out when it turned into a headwind soon afterward and that slowed us down a bit.

Today was a lot hillier than we thought it would be. Te race profile looked like the route was a gradual climb, but in reality it was a lot of ups and downs the whole race.

We finished with a 30k straight downhill which is something I’ve never experienced before and we were hitting speeds of 90 km/h in a massive bunch pointed toward the sprint.
That’s both good and bad.

You get to the top with 30k to go and now it’s downhill so you know you’re done in 30 minutes or so. It’s an amazing feeling but you can’t relax because everyone is so nervous so you have to fully concentrate on the entire descent.

It’s a little mixed bag of emotion really.

One thing I learned from the experience was just how fast a heavier rider can descend. I stocked up on six water bottles for my teammates and dropped like a rock down the hill. I now know what it feels like for heavier riders back home in the bunch that constantly rocket past me on the descents. Maybe I will always load up on water bottles when approaching a big descent in the future.

Etixx-Quickstep were on the front just keeping the pace steady on the downhill making sure no breakaway got too far and for everyone else to stay safe. All the teams knew that you couldn’t break away on the descent and stay away so everyone was safe and respected each others space on the road, so it was pretty safe going down.

There was a crash halfway across the final climb which put us out a little bit, and the finishing climb was a lot harder than we expected so it would have been a bit too hard for our sprinters Andrea Peron (ITA) and Martijn Verschoor (NED) to get into the sprint. My teammate Javier Mejías (ESP) finished safe and remains 11th on GC and tomorrow’s stage suits him.

I will try to stay with him and support him as much as I can over the final climb, as we are hoping for a top 10 on GC ideally, with anything after being a bonus.

In the meantime, stay tuned...
-Scott Ambrose







Tomorrows entry: Stage 6 – Denzili – Selçuk, 184km
Stage results (top 5)
1.    Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida)
2.    Carlos Barbero (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA)
3.    Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo)
4.    Michael Kolar  (Tinkoff-Saxo)
5.    Manuel Belletti (Southeast)

General classification (top 5)
1.    Davide Rebellin (CCC Sprandi Polkowice)                           00”
2.    Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida)                                      22”
3.    Eduardo Sepulveda (Bretagne-Séché Environnement)       54”
4.    Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo)                                              1’20”
5.    Serge Paulwels (MTN-Qhubeka)                                        1’38”

Aaron S. Lee is a cycling and triathlon columnist for Eurosport and a guest contributor to NZ Bike Magazine.  Image Credit: Kei Tsuji | Tim De Waele